“Enter Through the Narrow Gate” | Matthew 7:13–27

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys.

I'm Chris and I'm Jeff, and it's Monday.

It is Monday, and we are glad to be here.

If you're listening in order. If you're not listening in order,

it's whatever day you're listening.

Yeah. Yeah, it could be three in the morning at

a gym.

Yeah, on a Friday, on a Friday.

And if you're at Jim at the gym working out

at three in the morning on a Friday, then good

for you.

Good for you. Yeah, I'm not going to be there

at three in the morning.

No, I'm barely going to be there when I have

to be.

We're not going to have to fight over the StairMaster

at three in the morning.

You know, if at one time, when I was going

to the gym at La Fitness, I used to tell

my wife, I said, you know, if you time it

just right, everybody there looks like they're there because they're

prescribed to be there by a doctor. That's the time.

That's the time I like to go. I should go

to the gym. You're dying, right.

I go there because it makes me feel better about

myself and the time. So, hey, we're going to dive

into saying that Jesus made because we're in the middle

of a series. What if Jesus had his own podcast

and he had turns out he had a bunch of

famous sayings.

He did a lot of people like him.

Yeah, well he's famous for a reason, Jeff. Yeah. But

before we get into that, we have a segment by Desiree,

who has put together Stump the pastor every time I

hear stump the pastor, I want to like when I

hear stump, I want to bang something stump. I don't

know why why, I don't know, thinking of like a

jingle or something.

Okay, stump the past.

Okay, I don't know, don't, don't, don't, yeah something. But

here's the question written in by Alice m Hi Alice M.

She says, if all sins are equal before God, why

do humans rank them so intensely?

Wow, that's a great question, because very thoughtful, you know.

And by the way, we've said this a lot of

times on stage or talking one on one with people.

We say that just one sin makes you a sinner, yeah, right,

one line makes you a liar. All sins are equal,

All sins have the same price, All sins separate us

from God. So in that sense it is correct. All

sins are equal in the sight of God in terms

of eternity and punishment.

Right, not punishment but eternity.

Yeah, well those meaning salvation punishment yea.

Yeah, from a salvation standpoint. So the premise all sins

are equal comes from the Book of James was It

three where he says, if you've broken any part of

the law, you've broken the whole law. So that's where

the premise would come from. And that is a true

statement in that if you're trying to keep the law

in order to go to heaven, if you break any

part of it, guess what, you don't get to go.

Whether it's murdering somebody or telling a white lie, you're

right that you broke the law. You've broken all the law.

But when it.

Comes to sins themselves, it's not entirely a true premise

to say all sins are equal. God differentiates between sins.

Jesus differentiated even on Earth between sins. Do you remember

when Jesus was going through his trials, and he mentions,

and the judgment will be greater for this one. Remember,

he says that the one who actually announced his execution pilot,

so Jesus acknowledges this. But God says in the Book

of Proverbs, he mentions, he mentions all these sins. But

then he said, there's seven that I hate that are

detestable to me. Literally the word abomination. There's about seven

or eight more through the Old Testament that God mentions

that are abominations to him, And the word abomination could

have been translated it makes me want to vomit. Right,

So those are and I think it's because of the

consequences they have significant. Paul talks about sins within our

body and sins outside of our body. So there are

differentiations and sin. So when it comes to going to heaven,

every sin that we commit separates us from God.

It equally separates us.

Right, But the consequences of sins are they vary right.

Well, even even from a human standpoint as well.

That's right, right, the humans, the human consequences, the physical consequences,

those kinds of things, and then the things that will

bring sudden judgment from God. Versus the things that God

tends to be more gracious towards.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I think that's it's a great question, and

it's kind of a nuanced answer, don't you there's a

little bit of a nuance.

Yeah. Well, I mean the question is based on the

premise of understanding that, like, all sins are equal. That phrase,

it's it's sort of like semantics. It's like, what are

you meaning when you say that? Right? Because they are

equal in terms of separating us from God, and God

sees them as all of them offensive in terms of, like,

you know, disqualifying humans from God's holy presence, and you know,

also all of them are you know, just as offensive

to a sinless God, I believe, But in terms of yeah,

you're right, consequences, God expresses emotion against certain sins more

intensely than he does others.

And well, even in the Old Testament, some things God

would say, Okay, you did this wrong thing against your neighbor.

You need to go make it right. Restitution right then,

there were some restitution with interest, right then, there were

some death penalty right right. All of those were sins,

but some just required, hey, you need to go make

it right. Some say some of the consequences where you'd

make it right and give a little kicker, because you

know what you did was wrong, and so a lot

of it had to do with intent or with the

cost of the other person that you sinned against, where

God would would do this thing. So let me give

you a few verses that would help on this. James

two ten is where we get the verse that talks

about if you've broken any part of the law, you've

broken the whole law. So that's the premise of all

sins are equal. But for instance, Proverbs six sixteen through

nineteen is where God says, haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that rushed to do evil, a false witness, and

somebody who sows discord among brethren. Those things just makes

God sick. Right, that's he refers those things in a

different way than he refers to say, you know, stealing

a tutsi roll from the seven to eleven, right, right,

it's he does that's not in there. It's not in there. Okay,

I've double checked it, right, John nineteen eleven.

I have seven things, yay, eight things.

Those are your stole rolls from the Yeah, John nineteen

eleven is where Jesus mentions the one who handed me

over to you. He's talking about the one who handed

me over, talking about the Pharisees and the priests. They're

going to see greater judgment Kyphas specifically, and then Jesus mentions,

I forgot about this. When Jesus mentions how some towns

would be judged more harshly than Sodom. Remember in Matthew

chapter eleven, so he talks about Sidon and those and

he also speaks of varying degrees of punishment in Luke

chapter twelve, verses forty seven and forty eight, depending on

what a person knew, right to whom much is given

much as he required.

Yeah, so.

I think that the truth is much more nuanced than

just the flat statement. But I think humans rank sins

because this is the second half of a question. Humans

rank sins differently because of the external consequences.

Usually, Yeah, when.

You have a murderer or somebody committed genocide or a

rapist or something, we would say there's an extra level

of hell for you, right, And it's because of the

extreme external consequences on somebody else, and it was a

willful act.

Right. We look at those that way.

And God often also ascribes significant consequences to extreme internal decisions.

You knew what was right, and you extremely chose to

do the wrong thing, and so God measures it both

the external and the internal, and we don't always see

it that way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree, and I think that that's

our time on the segment. But I definitely think it's

a great question because it can be misunderstood. It could

be definitely misunderstood for people when you hear, for instance,

a pastor or somebody say, hey, all sins are equal

in the sight of God, and they're meaning that context,

the context of.

Well, even the smallest sin would have required the greatest

sacrifice that Jesus gave.

Yeah, I had to give his life.

For it, right, right, Yeah, all sins qualify us for

being sinners. Yes, they're equal in that sense.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, wow, all right, way, great question,

And that was pretty intense we start off. Yeah, and

guess what, Just like sins are small and big, just

like they are narrow and wide, I have another thing

that's narrow and wide today to talk about Jesus, and

they're called gates.

Yes, if you're new to the podcast, one of our

goals has been to have the worst possible transition.

Yes, yes, so good job, Chris.

Thank you, it was horrible. Thank you. Well.

We are in Matthew chapter seven, which, by the way, Chris,

Matthew chapter five, six, and seven are.

Called the Sermon.

On the Mountain.

And this is the longest message that Jesus preaches, And

so we're gonna read Versus and perhaps the most important

thirteen twenty seven.

It's significant.

He says you can enter God's kingdom only through the

narrow gate. The highway to Hell is broad, and its

gait is wide for the many who choose that way.

But the gateway to life is very narrow, and the

road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Beware of false prophets who come disguise as harmless sheep

but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by

their fruit, that is, by the way they act.

You can pick.

Grapes from thorn, you can, or can you pick grapes

from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles. A good tree

produces good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit. A

good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree

can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not

produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes,

just as you can identify a tree by its fruit,

so you can identify people by their actions. Not everyone

who calls out to me, Lord Lord, will enter the

Kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will

the Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day. Many

will say to me, Lord Lord, we prophesied in your

name and cats out demons in your name. Perfore many

miracles in your name. But I will reply, I never

knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws.

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise.

Like a person who builds a house on a solid rock.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise,

and the wind beats against that house, it won't collapse

because it's built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my

teaching and does not obey it, it's foolish, like the

person who builds a house on sand, and when the

rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house,

it will collapse with a mighty crash.

You want to that last there's a lot, Yes, sure

I might as well.

When Jesus had finished these sayings, and crowds were amazed

at his teaching, for he taught with real authority, quite

unlike their teachers of religious law.

Yeah. You know what's interesting is that, you know, because

we're not going chronologically anymore. I'm not I've not used

my chronological Bible. I just grabbed any Bible off my desk,

and I did this last week to the quest study Bible.

But it's been n I v oh yeah and uh.

And so it's it's so different to read a different

version right as you're reading it. Uh, because you said

the Highway to Hell, and it says for the for

why does the gate and broad? Where did you? Where

does your sayway to Hell's verse thirteen enter through the

narrow gate? For why is the gate and broad is

the road that leads to destruction? That's what mine says? Yes, right,

but your says how to Hell and anyway? As soon

as you said that, I thought, is there not a

single human being at least our age that did not

hear in the mine? Ah? Yeah, so anyway, let's get

that out of the way.

Sorry, brod broad is that gate?

Right?

But let's talk.

About we have we have three massive uh object lessons.

Right.

We have narrow and wide gates, we have fruit bearing

different trees bearing different types of fruit, and then we

have building house on solid versus shaky foundations.

So we have four minutes per topic. There you go,

there you go.

Let's go for it, all right, So okay, so wide

versus narrow gates. So oftentimes a city would be built

with walls protected around it. I mean every major city

just about had this. And everybody knows that there are

certain gates that you would walk through personally like humans,

and then there are certain gates that you could take

animals through. And then there were certain gates that were wider,

built wider for commerce. Right, they were like the main gates,

and depending on where you were approaching the city and

depending on what you had to do, were your choices. Now, Jerusalem,

how many gates? Did Jerusalem have a bunch? Like seventy

or something?

There were a bunch, Yeah, there were.

A bunch and at one time, and so there was

definitely a lot of different gates. I don't think there

were seventy.

I don't know.

But anyway, but you know, when he talks about gates,

everybody definitely understood that, right because you know, gates were

just as popular back then as they are now. Even

when Jesus talked about Sheep and Shepherd member, he talked

about the gates, and Jesus actually said at one point

that he was the gate. Right. So anyway, so yeah,

why why is the gate to hell narrows the gate

to heaven? And then he goes on and says that

there will be many people that said, whoa, whoa, whoa? God,

what do you mean I've I've I've been a person

who's gone around and done great things in your name?

And God will actually say one of the most sad

phrases in the Bible, right, depart from me for I

never knew you. And it's like, what are you talking about?

Are there going to be people that get to heaven

and they think they're gonna be in heaven and yet

God's going to say, no, you didn't, you didn't make it.

I mean, this is a pretty sobering passage. Yeah, so

what would you say about that?

So the wide gate is.

I think can be summed up with the idea that

all religions lead to God.

Right. How many times have you heard that? Oh?

I think as long as you're religious, as long as

you sincere. Yeah, as long as you have a sincere

religious belief, all religions lead to God.

Yeah. Let everybody believe what they want to believe.

You do you? Yeah?

In John fourteen, Jesus said, I'm the Way, the Way,

the Truth, right, the life. No one comes to the

Father except through me. So Jesus is saying, I am

that narrow gait. There aren't multiple ways to God. There's

only one way to God. And that's what he's saying.

So what did Jesus do for us? Jesus paid the

price that we could not pay. The wages of our

sin is death, but the free gift of God.

Is eternal life.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, God demonstrates his love toward

us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died

for us. So the only way anybody gets to Heaven

is by recognizing they're a sinner in need of a savior,

and they trust His grace and mercy to forgive their sins.

Because of the sacrifice Jesus paid on the cross, shedding

his blood and rising again in the third day. Right,

there is no other path, There is no other way.

That's it.

So there will be people who go Jesus. I was

a big fan. I had a bumper sticker, I wore

a cross. I even sometimes asked you to help me

out right, And Jesus is like, yeah, but you never

accepted my gift. You never placed your faith in trust

in me as your savior because you're a sinner.

Yeah, there are ways to miss salvation. Number One, you

know about God, just like you're referring to. Yeah, I

was around the things of God. I said, I was

a champion of God. But yet you didn't completely embrace, understand,

or accept and trust the Lord as your personal savior,

understanding that that's the way to heaven or like you

said before, which is claiming to be quote unquote religious

but ignoring the Jesus part. Right, there's a lot of

religions that world religions out there where they would not

recognize Jesus as the Messiah. It recognize Jesus as a

good man or a good prophet equivalent to Moses or

something like that. And by the way, I always feel

like I have to say this too, because I have

to assume out of the you know, thousands of listeners

that listen to us a month, if somebody's out there

and they don't understand that part of it, Like, Hey,

isn't that a narrow claim Jesus is saying that, you know,

it's very narrow minded. Well, I mean, it's a narrow

way to heaven through Jesus only, and it's not every religion.

But in terms of being inclusive, it's actually it's very wide, right,

because only in Christianity are all three of these things true.

Everybody's invited, everybody can get into heaven, and everybody is.

Get in the same way.

Yeah, I can get in the exact same way. Yeah, right,

So everybody can make it. Everybody's invited and everybody can

get in the exact same way. That's only true in Christianity.

The invitation of Jesus is open for every person. So

therefore it's the most inclusive invitation to heaven that exists

out there.

Right.

So this section from thirteen to well we read all

the way to twenty nine gives four examples of the

choices that we have to make in our lives. Right, So,

there's the narrow gate or the broad road. Which one

are you going to take?

Right, there's the good tree or the bad tree. What

kind of fruit are you going to produce?

There's the true discipleship or the false discipleship.

What kind of commitment are you going to make? Right?

Are you going to follow Jesus or not? And then

there's the solid foundation or the shaky foundation? What are

you building your life on?

Right?

So it's interesting how Jesus would do that. Sometimes you

don't really as I read it, I didn't naturally pick

up on it right. Oh, he gave us a whole

sequence of choices here. But there's this great note in

the life Affication of Study Bible. The highlight of that went,

oh that is fabulous. It's true. It was one of

Jesus' teaching styles. It's this or that, this or that,

and he'd give you the best solution or the consequences

of not going the best solution right in every way.

But I've always thought it was interesting, let's talk about

the good tree versus the bad tree, because this sounds

a little judgmental. Yes, just as you can identify a

tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by

their actions. What it seems a little judgmental, Like you're

measuring people by what they do. And there's good stuff

and bad stuff, which means there's good people and bad people.

And didn't Jesus say don't judge other people? As a

matter of fact, It's interesting he starts chapter seven with

that verse. We didn't read it, but chapter seven, verse

one says judge not others, or do not judge others,

and you will not be judged. Right, So people would say, gee,

it seems a little judge mental to even be paying attention.

To the fruit on other people.

Yeah, but Jesus is saying, you know, those things that

are publican out in the open. If somebody shows you

who they are, believe them.

Yeah.

If if they're doing good, well then they're probably good people.

If they're doing bad, they're probably bad people. That's it,

or at least the kind of people you shouldn't be

hanging out with. Yeah, that's the kind of people you

want to build your life around.

Yeah. There's no hint of judging here, no, none at all.

This is observation, yes, right, that's all it is. And

he's saying, he's saying, like a bad tree is going

to produce bad fruit. A good tree is gonna produce

good fruit, and a bad tree doesn't produce good fruit,

and a good tree doesn't produce bad fruit.

Right.

It reminds me of a Kung Fu panda where where

he says where Uguay says, you know, but you shall

get a peach, knotted apple or orange, right, because it's

like if you plant a peach tree, you're gonna get peaches.

That's right, Right, that's just the way it is. And

so it's just the way Jesus is describing it here.

And so it's just pure observation. He said, like what's

inside is going to come outside, and and and that's

how you're going to know somebody, which Jesus even supports later. Right,

You're going to be known by your fruit, is what

he says.

And in that first verse that I read a minute ago, judge,

not that you be not judged. He's talking about we're

not God. We can't judge whether somebody's going to heaven

or not. Right, that's a totally different thing.

Yeah, right, that's that's.

A whole can of worms, isn't it, right, Because he's

really saying, don't judge outsiders, But as Christians we are

actually challenged at times to actually judge insiders in love, right,

so you know, you know, we're allowed to sharpen each other,

approach each other, challenge each other. And somebody would say, well,

that's judging, Well, no, it's not. It's it's it's actually

getting in somebody else's business in a loving way, to

be woven together in accountability and friendship and relationship in

such a way to where people's lives aren't you do

you it's your business, not my business, your faith not

my faith. It's it's it's faith isn't designed that way.

It's designed to do community with each other, people with

others rather.

And then lastly, Jesus says, anyone who hears my teachings

and follows its wise, Yep. It's like a person who

builds on a on a foundation of rock and somebody

who hears my words but doesn't do them. So both

hear the words, both know what Jesus says. One does them,

builds on a rock, the other doesn't do them, builds

on his whole life on sand. The storm is coming

for both of them. One stands, the other fails.

Right, don't build your house on seeing kings those shore yep.

And they're good.

It's one of my favorite analogies that Jesus uses. Or

you're building your life because you're building your life. The

decisions that you make every single day is you're building

a life and you have to have you have to be,

you have to have. This world view of Christ is

the foundation and Jesus way is the foundation. Oftentimes what

we want is we want Jesus to bless what we're

doing instead of doing what.

Jesus said he'd bless yep.

Right, And that that's where the confusion comes from and

where a lot of times our lives collapse. If instead

we would do what Jesus said he would bless, we

have really strong probabilities that our life is going to

be strong.

Yeah. And just the visual aid for anybody who's in construction,

you know, you know, Jesus called himself actually the cornerstone. Right.

There's a there's a prophecy in the Old Testament? Was

it Isaiah? What was it? Where it actually talks about

the cornerstone and Jesus refers to himself, and everybody in

construction knows the cornerstone has to be a perfect ninety

degree angle, right, because you start with the cornerstone and

you build the everything around that, and it's the chief

stone of the entire building. If the cornerstone is not perfect,

then the whole house will eventually crumble because it'll be

imperfect foundation. So Jesus refers to himself that way. And

so it's just such an unbelievable picture to to to

build in. And could you imagine building a million dollar

mansion without the proper foundation, and then all of a

sudden the storm comes and all of a sudden, this

a whole mansion crashes. And then you look at you

look at people's lives, and that's the foot that's the picture,

isn't it right? Right? Do you ever see like a

mud slide with it where the whole where a whole

house just goes Yes, yeah, and it's just like, Holy Christmas,

I mean, that's that's really the devastation Jesus is talking about.

Entire lives can be built on on, you know, things

that aren't worth building upon, and and in the end

it just comes crashing down. Right.

It's powerful stuff.

Because you got to build your house upon the rock,

rock rock, You've got to build your foundation on the

solid's fine, okay, so and when the storms of life may.

Blow, I don't know it what I don't know that song.

The Peace of God You'll always know. Really I didn't.

I'm thrilled. That was fab fabulous.

All right, wey, that's our time and we will see

you tomorrow hopefully on the Bible guys.

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